106 Insect Life : Its Why and Wherefore 
the poor, long-suffering farmer, we may tell 
him at once that if he were to travel 
almost everywhere in this world where 
crops are raised or gardens are planted, 
he will find some relation of this numerous 
family at work. In America as well as 
in Old England, every scientific device 
has been brought to bear upon the subject 
of the wire-worm, and every effort made to 
counteract the harm he does, with but a 
small measure of success. The Click 
beetles (“ Elateridae ”) are the parents of 
the wire-worms, and are so called from a 
peculiar habit which they have of snapping 
their bodies on springing upwards, which 
action they are enabled to accomplish, not 
by means of their legs, as in the case of 
many kinds of insects, but by the action 
of the fore part of their bodies acting 
upon a specially provided and peculiar 
structure. The adult click beetle is 
generally about half an inch long, somewhat 
flattened, short in the head with a shield- 
shaped thorax, and in colour of a darkish 
brown. They seem, unfortunately, like 
many troublesome creatures to multiply 
very rapidly, but a favourite spot with 
